Yesterday GamePoliticsreported that video game legislation under consideration in Utah had been shelved while its sponsor, Rep. Scott Wyatt, researches constitutional concerns.

Today's Provo Daily Herald reports that Wyatt had earlier received a binder from the office of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff containing federal court rulings which struck down such laws in a number of states around the country.

Former Rep. David Hogue (left), who sponsored the original, failed version of the bill in 2006, told the newspaper:

This is one of my great passions. There has been a lot of opposition from the industry, and the Attorney General is twisting (Wyatt's) arm.

For his part, Wyatt said he did not wish to re-introduce the bill unless he felt the constitutional issues could be addressed:

If it passes, there will be a lawsuit.

In that case, Wyatt expects the federal district and circuit courts to strike down the video game legislation, but said he "does not know how the Supreme Court will rule." Citing nine previous federal court decisions in favor of the video game industry, A.G. Shurtleff said:

In every case, (the industry was) awarded six-figure attorneys fees. There are things you can do to educate parents and use the existing rating system.

Shurtleff, who has publicly come out in support of the ESRB system, recommended that Utah lawmakers await a final ruling on Oklahoma's video game law. Federal District Court Judge Robin Cauthron issued a preliminary injunction in October which blocks the Oklahoma law from being implemented while she considers her final decision. Shurtleff advised lawmakers to let Oklahoma spend its tax dollars fighting the constitutional issues.

@Konstruct:
You might be getting bills confused with laws. Its pretty common for bills (unpassed laws) to get tabled without ever being voted upon, etc when their sponsors realize they arent going to pass, etc, but once a law is passed and somebody challenges it (and the courts take up the case), then the courts pretty much will eventually rule on it. A court cant have open cases that they just forget about and die without a ruling (i think?), even of one side is just going ot conceed the point (prob not happen in the CA case), then the court needs to issue a rulign saying that one party prevails and then settling issues like resitution, etc. I expct the court int he CA case is just dragging their feet on the issue for no good reason, have they even had a formal hearing on the permanent injunction yet? Once they have that, im sure they will rule in favour of the game industry fairly quickly afterwards.

I think this means that with mounting losses, states are starting to listen to Jack Thompson a little less. This is very good that people are starting to doubt Jack Thompson and he is losing the war against violent video games. This a truly great day for Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games. The video game industry is going to win this war. A few more rulings in favor of the video game industry and politicians will find something else to attack.

Actually, they are attacking it because of the fact that they want to reduce violence and violent video games don't even make people violent. What they should do, if they want to reduce violence in society, is go after gun control laws. They should be trying to put gun control laws in place to make it illegal for private citizens to own guns. GUNS KILL PEOPLE NOT VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES. I've heard that many violent video games come from Japan and in Japan it's illegal for citizens to own guns. I've also heard that people almost never shoot anyone in Japan because they're not suppose to have guns. Thos are the laws that we should have here in America. Go after the real problem, not violent video games.

While I'm glad Shurtleff is telling Utah politicians to hold back until it's clear what happens to the Oklahoma's bill, I can't help but worry that even after OK's struck down (as it inevitably will be) Hogue will push for the bill to go through anyway.

With a bit of luck, Wyatt will have the common sense to save the six-figure legal fees and put it towards an education campaign that actually does something other than waste money.

On the issue of gun control: I don't own and doubt I ever will own a gun, but gun control is not the answer. I understand the issue reasonably well, and the problem is that more gun laws are going to generally keep firearms out of the hands of responsible, law-abiding people but not do much for the ones already getting their guns illegally.
The parallels to the video game debate are somewhat eerie, now that I think about it. Banning guns or banning video games - both might be of some small benefit in keeping them out of that dangerous 0.005% of the population, but is that benefit worth trampling all over the rights of the remaining 99.995% of the population that doesn't do stupid things?
In short - video game legislation alone wouldn't have prevented Columbine. And increased gun control alone also wouldn't have prevented it.

I realize that this is off topic, but all I'm saying is that Erci Harris, Dylan Klebold and Micheal Carneal killed people with guns not video games. If guns are gotten rid of, then future people, who are as disturbed as they were, won't be able to kill anyone and the video game industry won't be used as a scapegoat.

Actually, I think that gun control would make this whole anti-game issue go away because if people don't have guns, they can't kill very easily and video games will stop being used as scapegoats. I think that to end violence, guns have to be gotten rid of. Attacking images on a screen is ridiculous because that has nothing to do with the real problem. How is that off topic? Politicians want to decrease violence, they should get rid of guns.

It's a concession to the bill supporters. He can't turf it altogether, or they get mad. So he gives them a compromise "at least wait to see how OK turns out, since we based this heavily on their version". Bill gets delayed, and the supporters sit warm and fuzzy in the belief that OK will pass and their bill will be fine.

The sh*t storm will be when OK's copy gets chucked, Because then some idiot in Utah will actually have the gall to go "but maybe it will work here"...

I'm kind of curious about the 'wait on OK' plan. Even if we are to assume that the Oklahoma bill passes to it's full extent (and isn't somehow neutered by a judge), why is it that this one bill weighs more than all the others? I thought the writing on this bill was more similar to two others that were already sunk?!

I read everyone's comments and it had me thinking, banning video games won't decrese violence in the country, there's still other forms of media that contan violence. And banning citizens from owing their own guns won't decrese violence, there are more than one way to kill a person. I do believe that there should be some type of restriction of M games you know like when store owners ask for ID when you go buy some smokes, and that's being done here where I live. I think that's better than banning video games out right or putting them in the same catigory as porn. And to Daniel in response for law enforcement in Japan allowed to carry guns and not citizens; that law dates back to the Meji era when no one except law enforcement could carry swords. Now in this century, guns have replaced swords. Off topic I know but something intresting I thought I would share.

Shout box

You're not permitted to post shouts.

PHX Corp: I launched my spotify account today, and I kinda went a little overboard with adding music03/31/2015 - 3:59pm

Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am

Michael Chandra: Argh. Anyway, I'm glad that move was made. Wonder if it counts, can he just declare it like that? 03/31/2015 - 9:27am